By my standards, the Maldives are awesome. But I like that kind of thing. I was on Kaafu back in the day. I found the vis to be in my comfort zone. South Male used to be sort of the center for East Side. My advice, hey, you heard it on the internet, right? Would be to pick your association of choice, because you want a dive master who knows his/her stuff. The reason is, between you, me, and that bubble, is this. I don’t know how they are doing now. Inside the United Nations, inside UN CITES, we have been working on getting this regions Whale Shark protected. Now, the Maldives are one of the places on the planet where you can "predict" when the Whale Sharks will make their run. If, ... , you have never been diving with a Whale Shark, please don’t tell me that you haven’t, poor thing, but if you haven’t, then get on the internet and your agency and find out who the dive master / instructor is today, who has been following the Whale Share cycle for many years. That experience is worth traveling to the Maldives to see and to dive. IMHO. This is also one of the few islands on the planet with really vibrant coral, but I would check with that on how that is today. The coral is worth seeing, for sure, but it is the Whale Shark run that is really rare. There are a lot of dive shops that will tell you they know when they run, but you want a dive master who has been following them for a number of years. There is a lot to the Maldives though.